Beginning several years before having a heart attack, I was diagnosed as being borderline diabetic. I have no family history of diabetes and never seemed to have any symptoms of diabetes. But it was always hanging over my head and had sort of gone away until my last lab results from my cardiologist. He was aware of my borderline history, told me that my level was going up and I should see the endocrinologist I had seen previously. This was like dropping a bomb on me immediately after I had just gotten over the dreaded treadmill stress test. Thinking living healthy was proving itself, to be told I could be headed to becoming diabetic was not only scary, but also disappointing. Those of you diabetic, please do not be offended or disregard the positive things I have told you about healthy living. Let me finish this out. I am ignorant of many facts concerning diabetes. Why? Because I have stuck my head in the sand and have not wanted to know anything about it ,other than I am not diabetic. In my business, I had three people working in my office, and they worked closely with me, who were diabetic. Two of the three had sad endings related to diabetes and it has been a scary disease to me since. Enough said of the past. Today I went to my endocrinologist and got my test results and had a long talk, (Cindy and me) with the doctor. The results were that my sugar levels for the past year and for the last three months have decreased. That I am not diabetic, and my borderline level is decreasing. Thank you Lord. I feel blessed. What I want you out there reading to know, is my doctor attributed my improved condition and status as far as diabetes, is concerned on three things. Her words. "Daily exercise, eating a healthy diet, and weight loss are the reasons you have improved, you are already doing what you need to do to not become diabetic."
For some time I have thought that by eating healthy, we are not only bringing into our bodies nutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants that improve our cardiovascular systems, we are protecting ourselves from other diseases that those healthy foods combat as nature intended. What better reason could you want for changing your eating habits. Knowing how important it is to us heart patients. Just think about all of you young healthy folks out there and what it could mean to you when you get to our age, if you changed now.
Along the thought of following the course of nature and looking back at our ancestors for answers to what are healthy food habits, I was searching for why is salt unhealthy to blood pressure? We have always been told to watch our salt intake or you will have high blood pressure, but no one told us why. Sodium is a basic chemical element found in most foods which is essential to the human body. Table salt is a product of sodium and is 40% sodium. One teaspoon of table salt contains 2300 mg of sodium. The daily allowance of sodium for a healthy person is 2300 mg, for those of us with high blood pressure, it is 1500 mg per day. Your doctor may wish for yours to be even lower, depending on your circumstances. The following is a summary of a great article I found on the aakp website. (American Association of Kidney Patients)
In times far back in our past, water was not always easily available to our ancient ancestors. And through the need to conserve water and control body temperature, a natural function of our kidneys is to conserve salt. Conserving salt preserved water for the human body. Over time our kidneys always kept functioning in that natural manner and maintained a healthy level of salt, at the same time many things happened which resulted in human intake of salt to increase, to levels that not everyone's kidneys could regulate. Rather than absorbing sodium amounts found naturally in the foods man ate, he began adding unnatural levels to his food. Example, salt was discovered and found to be an excellent preservative for meats, fish, and later, in the making of cheese and other dairy products. So over time you can see how we came to consume amounts of a mineral that exceeded our bodies intended capabilities. Osmosis, the process of salt retaining water, creates circulatory volume higher than it should be, resulting in higher pressure on our blood vessel walls. Result..more salt than your bodies capabilities, high blood pressure.. You can find the article on the aakp site. I have greatly reduced and summarized here for the sake of space.
I find it intriguing that we can look to nature, for which foods and elements intended for us to consume for our bodies to function in a healthy manner.
I think I need to finish up here by saying you can pretty quickly decide for yourself what snacks, food, beverages in your diet are putting you over your daily sodium limits. Now we know why too much salt can increase our blood pressure.
Next time more on eating healthy
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